Editor's note: This is one in a series of stories Foster's is publishing about candidates in major races in the upcoming General Election.

BARRINGTON — During last Friday's editorial board meeting with Foster's, Robert Burns, candidate for District 4 Executive Council, disputed his opponent's claim that he is a Tea Party extremist.

Burns, 34, of 91 Hitching Post Lane in Bedford, a Republican, is running against Democratic candidate Chris Pappas, of Manchester, in a district that now includes the local towns of Barrington, Lee, Northwood, and Nottingham.

“Everything that comes out from him about me is, 'He's a Tea Party extremist,'” said Burns of Pappas. “I've always considered myself a conservative Republican.”

When asked whether he's a member of the Tea Party, Burns noted it's difficult to define Tea Party membership in general. He did say that when the Tea Party protests began in 2009, “I thought they were trying to rip me off — I was doing it first.”

Burns, the current treasurer for Hillsborough County, gained an interest in politics from an early age. When he was younger, he used to attend legislative sessions in Concord with his mother, Leslie Burns, who served for six years in the House of Representatives in the 1980s.

After graduating from Manchester High School West, Burns earned a business management degree from Keene State College in 2002. He is now the owner of Burns Automation, a company that manufactures and resells automated production equipment, mainly to the pharmaceutical industry.

For Burns, fully vetting judicial candidates, to ensure they strictly interpret U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions, is one of his major priorities. He said he would support administering litmus tests to judicial candidates.

“I don't think these people are getting the vetting that they need,” he said.

On Planned Parenthood, Burns said he was not happy that a N.H. health commissioner “circumvented” the Executive Council's decision to reject the contract with the organization.

“I'm pro-life. I don't believe abortions should be funded by taxpayer money,” said Burns. “I would have no issue with it if they weren't providing abortions.”

He said that while he has done a lot to provide affordable birth control to women in the past, Burns does not believe employers should be required to provide birth control to women through insurance plans if they object to it.

Like Pappas, Burns also showed opposition to the idea of privatized prisons.

“I'm very concerned about private military and private prisons,” said Burns, noting that the U.S. has the highest number of people in jail per capita than other nations in the world.

Burns said he also supported the Executive Council's decision to reject federal funds to study a commuter rail line between Concord and Boston. The study, said Burns, would not have shown much new information, and would have been a waste of federal money. He said it's also unlikely the train would be affordable for working class people.

“The train sounds nice, I just don't see it having a huge economic impact in the State of New Hampshire,” said Burns.